Education Policy & School Reform News

This section covers K12 policy, school board elections, curriculum transparency, parental rights, school choice, charter and voucher programs, and state and federal rules that shape classrooms. The Daily Signal includes news reports, analysis, commentary, and opinion pieces to explain how these decisions affect students, families, and educators.
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  • news

    Massachusetts High Schoolers Give Freed Slave Her 175 Years Overdue Gravestone
    Nearly 175 years after the death of freed slave Lucy Foster, a memorial service it’s thought she never got took place at a cemetery on May 9 in Andover, Massachusetts—thanks in no small part to a group of high school girls there. An elective course, “Out of the Shadows,” taught by Linda Meditz at the…
    Joshua Q. Nelson
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  • opinion

    How Louisiana Undermined Its Own School Choice Program
    “You couldn’t learn. There was so much bullying. Kids are bullying the other kids and they’re bullying you,” said Willie Augustus, who was relentlessly bullied in his public school in Louisiana. His parents unsuccessfully fought with the school board to address the school bullying. Eventually, they applied for and received a voucher for Willie to…
    Jude Schwalbach
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  • opinion

    The Equality Act Could Let Schools, Not Parents, Make Decisions About Children
    It’s not an alliance the media is rushing to cover—and who can blame them? After weeks of talking up this phony consensus on the Equality Act, imagine if the story got out that it’s not just conservatives who are opposed—but grassroots liberals, too. Even in a country as divided as ours, there is no right…
    Tony Perkins
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  • news

    8th Place: A High School Girl’s Life After Transgender Students Join Her Sport
    When two high school athletes who were born male but identify as female took first and second place at Connecticut’s girls indoor track championship this year, it wasn’t just a local news story. To some, it was a story of triumph and courage. The winner, a junior from Bloomfield High School, set a girls state…
    Kelsey Bolar
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  • opinion

    This Mom Is Fighting Her Kids’ School District’s LGBT Indoctrination
    Maria Keffler is a former teacher herself. But when she recently found out, by accident, about new LGBT policies her children’s school district was considering instituting, Keffler was shocked. Now she’s speaking out—and urging other parents to do the same. Read the transcript of the interview, posted below, or listen to the interview on the…
    Katrina Trinko | Daniel Davis
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  • opinion

    LA May Cap Charter Schools to Appease Unions. But Kids Would Pay the Price.
    When policymakers in California enacted a charter school law 25 years ago, many children had educational choice for the first time. But now, teachers unions want to needlessly limit children’s choices. Francisco Nunez’s story is a prime example of how charter schools use their independence to inspire and empower children through learning. Growing up in…
    Jude Schwalbach
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  • news

    New Jersey Parents to Rally Against LGBT Education Law
    A rally this weekend will give New Jersey parents an opportunity to oppose a new state law requiring public schools to teach children about the “political, economic, and social contributions” of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. The new law also requires schools to stress such contributions made by disabled persons, but it’s the LGBT…
    Rachel del Guidice
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  • news

    George Washington University Students Far From Consensus on Changing ‘Colonials’ Mascot
    The Student Association at George Washington University has called the school’s nickname and mascot, the Colonials, “extremely offensive” and has urged that it be changed, but it’s not at all clear how widespread support for the move is among the broader student body.   A recent referendum question asking GW students whether the university should…
    Courtney Joyner
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  • opinion

    Pro-LGBT Group at Brigham Young University Wants to Secularize the School
    Brigham Young University is known for a lot of things: a great football team, superior academics, but most of all, being the flagship school of the Mormon church (also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Yet today, BYU’s identity is being challenged. Not by political forces from Washington, but from within…
    Ryan Neuhaus
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  • news

    234 House Democrats, 2 Republicans Co-Sponsor Bill Forcing Schools to Let Male Athletes Compete on Girls Sports Teams
    Every House Democrat but one has co-sponsored a bill requiring schools to allow male athletes who identify as transgender girls to compete on female sports teams. Democrats’ Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to make “sexual orientation and gender identity” protected characteristics under federal anti-discrimination law. Among other things, the bill would force…
    Peter Hasson
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  • opinion

    National School Lunch Program Has Morphed Into Massive, Wasteful Entitlement Program
    The National School Lunch Program has changed dramatically since it began in 1946. What started as a grant program to help poor students and those with special needs has morphed into a massive entitlement offering meals to 30 million students every year—equivalent to nearly 55% of all children enrolled in public and private schools. And…
    Jonathan Butcher | Vijay Menon
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  • opinion

    High School Girls Protest Biological Males Being Allowed to Change in Their Locker Rooms
    There are at least 787 students at Pennsylvania’s Honesdale High School—but only one of them seemed to know about a major change in the school’s rules. The others found out the most traumatic way possible—when they walked into the girls’ locker room and found a teenage boy in women’s underwear. For at least one 15-year-old…
    Tony Perkins
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  • news

    South Carolina Democrats Fight Against University Constitution Course
    South Carolina Democrats argued for more than an hour to prevent legislation that would require state universities to teach a “Constitution 101” course Tuesday. The Republican-proposed bill would update an existing 1924 requirement to teach the course, which the University of South Carolina has hitherto ignored. The legislation has already passed in the Senate, but Democrats…
    Anders Hagstrom
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  • news

    Democrats Encourage Kids to Ditch School and Join the ‘Climate Strike’
    Democratic politicians are encouraging thousands of children to skip school to demand politicians do something about global warming, including passing the Green New Deal. “[S]tudents are fighting like their world depends on it,” former Vice President Al Gore said in a tweet extolling Haven Coleman, a 12-year-old listed as the U.S. climate strike’s co-founder and co-director. “I…
    Michael Bastasch
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  • opinion

    South Carolina Stands Up to University, Defends Study of Founding Documents
    Should college students be required to study America’s founding ideals and the founding documents from which they emanate? Many people in South Carolina believe they should. Last month, the South Carolina Senate passed the Reinforcing College Education on America’s Constitutional Heritage Act (REACH Act), which requires all college students at state colleges to take a three-credit-hour…
    Jameson Broggi
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  • news

    Male Runners Dominate Girls High School Track in Connecticut
    Two male runners are continuing to dominate high school girls track in Connecticut. High school juniors Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood took first and second place in the state open indoor track championships Feb. 16, The Associated Press noted in a report Sunday. Both Miller and Yearwood are biological males who identify as transgender girls. One of their competitors, high…
    Peter Hasson
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  • opinion

    Federal Early Childhood Education, Care Don’t Benefit Kids. Here Are the Facts.
    Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., unveiled Tuesday a proposal to subsidize universal early education and child care through federal subsidies. According to The Huffington Post, “no family would have to spend more than 7 percent of its household income on child care, no matter the number of kids.” Providers would have to meet safety and curriculum…
    Lindsey Burke
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  • opinion

    Florida’s Universal Education Choice Moment
    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday that the state legislature intends to establish Equal Opportunity Scholarships designed to end the current waiting list on the tax credit scholarship program—a move the Republican chief executive supports. The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship—which provides scholarships to eligible children to attend a private school of choice, and which is…
    Lindsey Burke
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  • news

    Parkland Student Activist, Father of Victim Reflect on Year Fighting for School Safety
    One year after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 students and staff dead, Kyle Kashuv and Andrew Pollack have emerged as two of the most prominent and outspoken critics of Broward County officials and defenders of the Second Amendment. Pollack, who lost his daughter Meadow, 18, in the massacre on Feb. 14,…
    Ginny Montalbano
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  • news

    DeSantis Seeks Grand Jury Investigation of Broward County School Failures 1 Year After Parkland Shooting
    Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Wednesday he wants a grand jury to look into possible mistakes made by Broward County Public Schools in addressing the Parkland, Florida, shooting. The grand jury would have more subpoena power and a greater scope compared to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission, which released a January 2019 report detailing…
    Neetu Chandak
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